Glen Powell, Michiel Huisman, ‘Downton Abbey’ Actors Join ‘Guernsey’

EXCLUSIVE:Mike Newell just added a number of new actors to his film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which is underway in the UK. Glen Powell (Hidden Figures), Michiel Huisman (The Age of Adeline, Game of Thrones), Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game, Downton Abbey), Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), Tom Courtenay (45 Years) and Penelope Wilton (The BFG, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) have joined Lily James in the film.

James stars as journalist Juliet Ashton who forms a bond with a secret book society formed during German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII. The free-spirited Ashton forms a life-changing bond with the eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,when she decides to write about the club.

The screenplay was adapted from the Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows international best-selling epistolary novel of the same name; the book was published by Random House and sold 7.5M copies in 37 countries.

The script was written by Don Roos, Kevin Hood and Tom Bezucha. Producing is Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan from The Mazur/Kaplan Company and Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin from Blueprint Pictures (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, In Bruges).

Mazur/Kaplan is a book-centric production company that recently wrapped production on The Man Who Invented Christmas, directed by Bharat Nalluri, starring Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast) and Christopher Plummer. Also on its slate is The Silent Wife with Nicole Kidman and All The Bright Places starring Elle Fanning and directed by Miguel Arteta.

Blueprint Pictures has two films slated for release in 2017: The first is James Marsh’s Untitled Donald Crowhurst Film starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. The second is Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell.

StudioCanal is financing the project and will distribute in its own territories, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. The company will also handle all other international rights.